Just Because It Burns
by PunkPinkPower
Summary: Mike wonders what universe he's fallen into when he wakes up for the third time and Kevin is fluffing his pillow, tucking his sheets in, and saying "Can I get you anything?"


Notes: Title from the song "Try" by Pink, which AHHHH Mike/Kevin fanmix song number one. Also, I completely blame Pocky for this. She requested "One of them is injured in battle and the other one fusses over him a lot. Bonus points if they are not a thing yet and the injured Ranger is totally confused as to why he's being so nice all of a sudden" and then a stampede of bunnies occurred and carried it over to an extreme, and I ended up writing this Goliath. All your fault, Pocky. I hope you love this, because lordy, I DO.

Mike wakes up uncertain of himself. His vision is fuzzy around the edges, and it seems to take a long time to make out the shapes around him. He's hot, too, like someone has the furnace up to a million degrees.

Something else is off, too. There's a sharp pain coming from his left shoulder, achy and still throbbing. He wants to reach up to touch it, to see what happened to him, to apply pressure maybe, but he can't seem to find the strength to lift any of his limbs.

"He's awake!" A voice calls, and then a lot of colored blobs are hovering over him. "Mike, can you hear us?"

"Don't make him waste his strength," someone scolds, and then he feels himself being lifted up, but he can't actually move, he realizes. "Mike, you've been poisoned. We've destroyed the Nighlock, and the power should take care of the paralytic agent now. Here," the disembodied voice shoves something up against his lips, "you need to drink this. It will take the pain away and make you sleep."

"It's okay, Mike," the person behind him says. "We'll take care of you."

Mike does as he's told, swallows the sweet tasting liquid that's poured into his mouth, and then feels someone's hand press gently against his head before he drifts off.

* * *

When he wakes up again, he's relieved to find his vision clear and his ability to use his limbs returned. It takes a minute, actually, but he's able to lift his right arm and rub at his eyes. The small motion exhausts him. He remembers someone-Ji, he thinks-telling him he'd been poisoned.

By what, though? The last thing he remembers was Antonio trying to make them all eat squid for breakfast… when had they gone to fight a Nightlock? How much time had he lost?

How long had he been asleep, he wonders, as his stomach growls loudly.

He looks down to investigate him stomach making noise, and freezes when he sees a head resting next to his leg. Kevin has his arms crossed on the side of the bed, his head slumped over them, and his eyes are fluttering gently. He's sleeping in what's probably a terribly uncomfortable position, but he looks almost as exhausted as Mike feels.

Mike reaches out, tries to jostle one of Kevin's hands, but can't keep the effort up for more than a second. "Kev," he says, and his voice sounds horribly weak. He clears his throat to try again, and Kevin's head snaps up.

"Mike," Kevin jumps forward, his face full of concern and worry and his hands immediately going for Mike's forehead, his cheek, and then pushing him back down into the bed. "You need to rest! How are you feeling? Are you in any pain?"

Mike tries to shake his head, can't manage it. "Feel tired," he mumbles instead, and Kevin's brow furrows. Mike has the presence of mind to wonder what Kevin is doing here, where everyone else is, but he can't actually bring himself to care around the weight on his chest and the dryness of his throat. "Water, please?"

Kevin reaches for the bedside table, picks up a glass and holds it to Mike's lips for him while he glugs it down. He makes a small wave for Kevin when he's finished, and the glass disappears. Mike doesn't realize he's closed his eyes until he feels Kevin's hand on his forehead again. "It looks like you're fever has broken, at least."

Kevin says it like he's sad, like more should have happened, and Mike opens his eyes. "Happened?" he squeaks out, and realizes that even if Kevin answers him, he won't be awake to hear it.

"Later," Kevin says, and he moves to sit next to Mike on the bed, places a hand over one of Mikes. "Go back to sleep."

* * *

Mike wonders what universe he's fallen into when he wakes up for the third time and Kevin is still there, fluffing his pillow and tucking his sheets in around him. Mike eyes him for a moment before shuffling back down into the bed. "Welcome back, sleeping beauty," Kevin says, placing a hand on Mike's shoulder. "Can I get you anything?"

"I need food like you need comedy lessons," Mike says, and he finds he has the strength to shift a little in the bed, but can't because of Kevin's tucking job. It makes Kevin laugh, which okay, definitely a parallel universe. Kevin never thinks he's funny.

"Good to see you're starting to get back to normal," Kevin says, and then he's pressing something into Mike's hand. Mike looks down to find a juice box there. "Here, drink this. I'll go get you something more."

Kevin doesn't take his hand away, looks at Mike for a really long moment before he shakes his head, gets up and goes out of the room. Mike stares after him, wondering what that was about. He goes to open the juice box, but finds pulling the straw off of it especially difficult. He flexes his fingers, opens and closes his fist, trying to make his body respond. He tries to pull the straw from its wrapper, realizes that if this is so difficult there is no way he'll be able to punch the straw into the top of the box and scowls. He keeps trying, though.

He's starting to get frustrated when Emily peeks her head in the door. "Mike!"

He looks up, smiles at her. "Hey," he greets, and she bounces over to the bed, wraps her arms around him in a quick hug.

When she pulls away she sits on the bed and says, "I'm so glad you're okay! We were really starting to get worried." She looks down at the juice box in his hands, and Mike glares at it. "Need a hand?"

"I didn't really want it anyway," Mike says, attempting to push it aside, but Emily smiles, grabs it from his hand and quickly tears open the straw wrapper and pushes the straw in.

She passes it back to him. "Mentor said you'd be really weak for a while, remember, at least until all of the poison is out of your system."

"Yeah," Mike says, after he's sipped some of the fruit punch out of the box gratefully. "About that. What happened?"

Emily raises her eyebrows. "You-you don't remember?"

Mike shakes his head. "Last thing I knew, we were trying to convince Antonio that squid was not breakfast food."

Emily half-smiles at the memory. "Yeah, we totally didn't win that one." Then her face goes worried again. "You don't remember anything else?"

Mike sips his juice, stares at her. After a moment he says, "I remember Kevin helping me drink a glass of water, and tucking me into bed like an infant just now." As if on cue, Mike has to stifle a yawn.

"Yeah," Emily says, a look of amusement crossing her face. "He's been pretty vigilant about taking care of you the past few days."

"Days?" Mike says, sputtering. "How long have I been asleep?"

"Well, you haven't really been…" she pauses, watches Mike fiddle with the now empty juice box. "Since Tuesday," Emily informs him, taking the empty juice box from his hands and tossing it in the trashcan. "It's Saturday."

"Crap," Mike says, and Emily smiles at him weakly.

"Don't worry, everything's under control. Mentor warned us you could be out of commission for a week or two." Emily says, like that's supposed to be comforting.

"What did I say about not wearing him out?" Kevin's voice intones, coming through the doorway with a tray.

"What, the sick guy's not allowed visitors?" Mike jokes, but he's so incredibly happy to see Kevin now that he has food with him. Emily moves out of the way, and Kevin sets down the tray over Mike's lap. Mike can smell the chicken noodle soup and herbal tea already. His stomach growls loudly.

"The sick guy can have visitors when he can lift both hands over his head and feed himself," Kevin says, and Mike looks at him with a question.

"What?" He asks, baffled.

Kevin's smile fades. "You," he starts, then pauses, apprehension covering his face. He sits down, looks in Mike's eyes. "Yesterday," he says cautiously. "You were in and out all afternoon. I had to spoon feed you yogurt." Mike's eyes widen comically, but no one laughs. "Mia and Antonio had to help you change clothes?"

Mike looks between them, shakes his head. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Kevin looks over at Emily, who bites her lip. "He was just saying he doesn't remember the attack, or anything after breakfast Tuesday morning."

Kevin looks back at Mike, his face suddenly hard, and Mike tries to figure out what's going on other than the fact that he was poisoned. They both look so worried that Mike's stomach starts to twist. Was this not part of the poisoning thing, then?

Kevin looks down at the soup, hands Mike the spoon. "I think we should go get Mentor," he tells Emily, and then to Mike, "Eat your soup before it gets cold."

As they stand, Kevin stops, looks back, his face looking weird and unnatural. "Call me if-if you need help," he stutters, and then he turns, walks out of the room behind Emily.

Mike spoons the soup into his mouth, finds out he doesn't have total control of his mouth yet, spills some soup on his shirt, and curses. This is going to be a hell of a week.

* * *

Mentor spends the better part of an hour examining Mike when he finishes eating, shining a light in his eyes, testing his reflexes (which are slower than a turtles), making Mike play word games with him, asking him questions about his life and what he remembers. The mental games are easy, but Mike becomes incredibly annoyed when Mentor asks him to lift his legs, or wiggle toes, or roll onto his side and _all of it _is nearly impossible.

The others stand out in the hallway, all of them watching, looking nervous. Mike's starting to feel like an animal at a zoo, so he finally lifts his hands in a 'stop' motion and says, "Look, so I'm missing a couple of days. It's probably the poison, right? Or maybe I hit my head a little. You were giving me pain killers, right, and we all know what those do to people's ability to form memories."

Mentor nods, stands, picks up his cane. "You're probably right, but all the information I had about that Nighlock from the old texts said nothing about memory loss. You lost five whole days Mike, when you seemed perfectly lucid during some of it. We need to be cautious."

"I remember a couple of things," Mike says, trying to think. "I remember you telling me I'd been poisoned. Sort of. And I remember Kevin helping me drink a glass of water. And-" Something flashes behind Mike's eyes, and he sees a quick image of the floor, and someone's bare feet and feels the ghost of a hand on his back.

Kevin steps forward. "What," he says, one of his arms crossed over his chest and the other gesturing towards Mike. "What do you remember?"

Mike looks up, looses the image, and frowns. "I don't know."

Kevin sighs. Mentor purses his lips. "You should get some more rest for the time being. We almost lost you, Mike." He looks at Kevin, then behind him at the other rangers, then back at Mike. "I have to tell you, I can't be sure that the damage the Nighlock did will completely go away. You may be weak for quite some time yet, and I'm not sure what the long-term effects will be."

Mike swallows, nods, tries to look lighthearted when he says, "Well, at least now I'll have an excuse not to train so hard."

Mentor nods with a small smile, then turns and leaves the room. The other rangers hover at the threshold.

"You should get some more sleep," Jayden says eventually.

Mike shrugs. "I slept for a week. I'm not sure I can."

Everyone exchanges worried glances.

Mia steps forward, trying to distract him he guesses. "I could read you a story? Or make you some calming tea?"

"I'm okay," Mike says, maybe a little too quickly, then fakes a yawn. "Actually, I do feel a bit sleepy."

Mia purses her lips at him, but nods, starts tugging the others away from the door as she shuts it. "Get some rest, then. Feel better. And don't worry about a thing! We have it all under control!"

The door closes as Antonio and Emily wave, and Mike is left in the room with Kevin, who he eyes cautiously. Kevin is staring hard at the floor, seemingly lost in thought. Mike waves a hand, tries to get his attention.

"Earth to Kevin," Mike jokes, and Kevin's face snaps to him, but he looks so hurt that Mikes smile fades away entirely. "Whoa, man, what's up?"

Kevin stares. Then he shakes his head, drops his arms, puts on a grin. "Nothing, sorry." Then he looks awkward, like he isn't sure why he's still here. Mike isn't sure either.

"So I'm not tired at all," Mike offers, waving a weak hand. "I mean, body? Exhausted. Brain? Not so much."

Kevin smirks, looks around the room. "Want me to find you something to do that doesn't involve Mia reading picture books?"

Mike makes a face, pats the bed for Kevin to sit down. "Or, you can tell me what happened?"

Kevin's face goes hard again, sad. He shakes his head. "I told you. Once." Kevin's voice is quiet, suddenly serious. "Before. I think we should wait, see if you're going to forget this to."

There's something in his voice that makes Mike feel awful, like he's responsible for whatever's been ripped out of Kevin's heart in the last few minutes, but he doesn't understand why. He doesn't understand any of this, doesn't understand why everyone won't tell him what's been going on. Doesn't understand why Kevin looks totally heartbroken that Mike doesn't remember drifting in and out of sleep over the last week.

"I'll go find you a comic book," Kevin says after a moment, when Mike doesn't respond. "Any other requests?"

Mike shakes his head, watches Kevin go. Mike is trying to figure out what to say to make Kevin feel better when he gets a pain in his shoulder. He looks down at the bandage, feels it burning. He tries to lift a hand to it to put pressure on what is starting to feel like a gaping hole in his chest, but he can't, can't move at all, and he passes out again before Kevin get's back.

* * *

_The Nighlock is sort of scorpion-y with a dash of cobra, and avoiding its stinger is proving to be a problem. He shoots them all with some yellow goop that melts off of their suits easily enough, but when they get close enough to attack him, they don't expect him to be powerful enough to de-morph them. _

_He swings at Mike with his staff, and a wave of nausea and electricity shoot through him. He hits the ground, feels the power drain out of him, and before he can do anything the Nighlock is over him, his giant stinger of a tail sticking hard into Mike's shoulder. _

_He's certain he's falling, at first, only then he realizes it's more like bouncing, really. His vision is blurred red, and he has just enough strength around the burning in his chest to reach out and grab whatever is thrashing him around. _

"_Hang on," he says as Mike grips his blue sweatshirt. "We're almost there, Mike. Don't you give up!" _

_The room is dark. Kevin's face is next to his, his eyes half lidded, and somewhere Mike can feel Kevin's hand over his chest wound. _

"_It feels better," Mike mumbles. "When you're here." _

"_I won't go anywhere," Kevin promises, and he tilts his forehead against Mikes. "Not if you don't want me to." _

* * *

He's soaking wet. That's the first thing he realizes as he opens his eyes, gasps for air. Kevin's there, looking absolutely panicked, his hands on either side of Mike's face. Mike blinks hard, tries to sit up. His chest aches, and he feels like he weighs a thousand pounds.

Behind Kevin, he can see the others bursting into the room, Mentor in front.

"What happened?" He asks, breathing hard.

"He just started burning up again," Kevin says, taking his hands away. "He was thrashing, and I used symbol power to dump water on him to cool him down. This hasn't happened since that first day."

Mentor comes over, puts a hand to Mikes head.

"The fuck is happening to me?" Mike manages to get out. Behind Ji, he see's Emily grab Antonio's arm in a frightened way. He holds onto her just as tightly back.

"I'm not sure," Ji says, pulling back. He turns to Kevin. "I'm going to go and see a friend, a doctor, who may know more about this. Clearly just destroying the Nighlock wasn't enough to completely negate the effects of its poison."

"We'll come with you," Mia offers, but Ji holds up a hand.

"You need to be here, in case more Nighlock's attack." He turns to Kevin. "I'll be a day or two. Call me if anything changes."

Kevin nods, one of his dutiful second-in-command nods, and Mike feels like he's in pretty good hands if Ji's instructed Kevin to take care of Mike. Because really, Kevin often manages to do the impossible out of sheer power of will, so Mike's pretty sure he can babysit him and keep him alive while Mentor does what he needs to. The thought makes Mike smile a bit.

Mentor sweeps out of the room, and Jayden follows him. The others stand awkward for a few minutes, uncertain.

Able to use his arms again, Mike gestures to the bed. "Not that I didn't appreciate your quick thinking," he says to Kevin with a half-grin, "but I'm sort of sitting in a giant pile of water here?"

Antonio cracks a smile, and the others seem to rush into action.

"I'll get some new sheets and pillows," Mia offers, turning.

"I'll go grab him some clothes," Antonio says, shuffling out behind her.

Emily comes over to the bed, helps Kevin peal back the soaked sheets on top of Mike. Mike tries, but he can't help, and Kevin smacks his hand away when he even tries.

"This sucks," Mike says, but no one responds. Something instinctive makes him reach for Kevin when he comes close again, makes him wrap an arm around Kevin's shoulders. It's like Kevin expects it, because he was totally going to lift Mike off the bed like a girl, and Mike thinks they've done this before.

It's sort of weird, holding on to Kevin while he walks him over to the chair in the corner of the room and then sets Mike down. It's definitely something they've been doing this week, Mike thinks. Kevin's way too practiced at it to be winging it.

He tries not to be disturbed at the fact that he can't use his legs, really. He can wiggle his toes, which is sort of comforting, but it's so much _effort_.

Kevin goes into the hallway and returns right away with a first aid kit.

Emily takes the rest of the sheets off and the pillows too, and leaves the room to put them somewhere. Mia returns with new pillows and sheets, and she quickly uses a symbol to dry out the mattress. Antonio comes back with some new clothes for Mike, and together he and Kevin manage to shirk Mike out of his wet shirt and pajama bottoms and get him into new dry clothes.

Its horrid embarrassing. The shirt is easy enough. Mike can almost stay sitting on his own, but Kevin was right, he needs help getting his arms all the way up. He can see why people in hospitals got kept in easy to remove gowns.

Kevin takes about 3 minutes in-between shirts to strip off and replace Mike's wet bandage, and he gets a brief look at the wound causing all the trouble. Its dark red, angry looking, rimmed in a sort of circle. It's swollen, too, all puffed up like a giant sting. Which it is, Mike thinks. He got stuck with a large stinger full of poison. The wound, he thinks, is suspiciously close to his heart.

For the pants, Kevin picks him up again, holding him close to him, their chests pushed together in a surprisingly intimate way, while Antonio bends down and picks up Mike's feet one at a time and slips them into the loose green pajama's.

"I feel like an invalid," Mike says to no one in particular.

Kevin grins sadly. "That's the fourth time you'd said that this week."

"And it's the fourth time it's true," Mike responds quickly, and he lets Kevin pick him up and carry him back over to the bed, where all of them cover him up in fresh sheets and hover.

"That whole feeling like an invalid thing?" Mike says, and then waves a finger at all of them. "The looks of pity and sorrow are not helping."

Emily smiles, bends down to take Mike's hand. "Mentor will find a way to make you better, I know he will. You'll see."

Mike nods. He's not as certain as she is, but then he thinks she's probably not very certain either. She's saying what they all need to hear. Even if it's not necessarily true.

"Come on," Antonio says, "Mike needs some sleep." Mike gives Antonio a look, and he gives one right back. "And don't look at me like that you-" Antonio says something in quick fluid Spanish at him that Mike can't make out, but he gets the gist easily enough, "I swear, one more scare like that and I will beat you over the head with your own spin sword!"

Emily starts shooing Antonio out, laughing, and Mike rolls his eyes with a grin. Kevin pulls over a fold up chair, takes a seat next to Mike's bed. Mike watches, remembers Kevin's words: _I won't leave, not if you don't want me to. _

Mia comes over, rubs a hand over Kevin's head, bends down and gives him a kiss on the top of it. Kevin reacts, wraps an arm around her waist, gives her a squeeze, and whoa, Mike thinks, when did that happen? Mia and Kevin? Seriously?

"I'll bring you guys some food," she says softly, and then with a small glare and an exasperated look she says to Mike, "Don't worry, it'll be out of a box!" and leaves.

Mike's eyes widen, and he looks to Kevin for explanation. "What'd I do?"

Kevin grins sheepishly. "You sort of told her you hate her cooking," he says, and Mike feels his stomach sink. "While you were half out of it, she asked if you wanted her to make you anything special, and you said 'Lord, woman, I've already been poisoned once this week'."

Mike slaps a hand to his face, trying not to smile. "Oh, no. She probably actually will try to poison me now!"

Kevin shrugs, his smile growing a little. "Actually she took it pretty well. Agreed not to cook for us without Ji's help, did some research on cooking classes."

"I'm still a terrible person," Mike says, and he stifles a yawn with a hand that suddenly feels very heavy. "I can't believe I said that."

"I can," Kevin says, and he sounds wry. Like some of the things Mike's been saying might be a fond topic of discussion for him.

"Look," Mike says, rolling to be slightly on his side, adjusting to a place where his wound doesn't hurt. He closes his eyes contentedly. "I think it's safe to assume that whatever I've been saying all week long has been poison induced insanity, and other than Mia's cooking, no good will come from repeating any of it." He smiles to himself. When Kevin doesn't say anything, Mike opens his eyes, and is sort of shocked at what he sees.

Kevin's face has turned cold, sad and hollow in the time it took Mike to roll over, and Mike stiffens, wondering what's the matter now. Is he sprouting claws? Turning into a bug? Because from the look on Kevin's face, Mike thinks that something terrible has happened.

"Dude," Mike says, reaching out. "What's wrong?"

Kevin jerks back from Mike's touch, looks away. His voice sounds choked when he says, "Nothing, sorry. I'm just tired. Go to sleep."

Mike watches him, lowers his head, waiting to see if Kevin actually is okay. "Hey, man, whatever it is, you can tell me."

"Go to sleep." Kevin says, and this time it's a firm command, harsh and even a little mean sounding.

"Okay," Mike says cautiously, sinking down into the pillow. "Sleeping. Got it."

He closes his eyes, but it takes him a long time to go to sleep with the way his stomach suddenly feels.

* * *

"He doesn't remember," someone's voice is saying as Mike comes to. "You have to tell him!"

"Poison induced insanity," someone mumbles, sounding upset. Mike strains, tries to figure out where the voices are coming from and who they are. "There's no point."

"You don't know that-" the voice breaks off as he shifts, rolls onto his back.

"Mike?" Someone says in the dark, suddenly hovering over him. "You okay?"

Mike lifts a hand, rubs at his eyes, nods. "Time is it?"

Something lights up, and he can see Mia's face looking down into her Samurizer. "Almost eleven." She looks over her shoulder, stands, and the light goes dim. "I should get to bed," she says to whoever is there.

"Yeah, go," Kevin says, and he walks over in the dark, flicks on a nightlight on the wall. "I got this."

Mike can see their figures a little better now thanks to the light, and he watches Mia give Kevin a short tight hug before she leans back and whispers to Mike, "Sorry if we woke you. Feel better."

The light from the hallway spills into the room when she leaves, but she closes the door behind her and shuts it out again.

"You okay?" Kevin asks, still standing next to the nightlight.

Mike contemplates. "Sort of," he says slowly, embarrassed and annoyed. "I need to go to the bathroom."

Kevin actually grins, rolls his eyes. "Always the middle of the night with you," he jokes, pulling Mike's covers back. "I should have known."

Mike is glad it's dark, because he's sure his face is a picture of mortification. Kevin bends down, puts a hand under Mike's knees and one around his back. Mike wraps a weak arm around Kevin's shoulder, and Kevin's lifts him up easily.

"If there's one good thing that will come from this," Mike mumbles as Kevin nudges open the door to the hallway, "It's that I'm going to have a great figure by the time its over. No belly fat to be found here."

Kevin doesn't respond, just takes Mike to the bathroom and acts perfectly professional while he helps him. They don't make small talk, because this is already awkward. Of course, this isn't the first time they've been stuck in a bathroom together, Mike thinks, thinking back to the time when they were glued together. Now that had been awkward.

When Kevin carries him back into the room, Mike can't help but make some quips about their position. "Bet you don't have to lift any weights this week, either," he jokes, "getting your work out easily enough."

"And you say I need comedy classes," Kevin says as he lays Mike back into his bed. "You've already made that joke."

Mike lets his mouth fall open, annoyed. "Seriously? Man, this really sucks. Not only am I bedridden, I'm repetitive _and_ predictable."

Kevin throws the covers back over him, stands, puts his hands on his hips for a moment. He looks like he wants to say something, even in the dim light Mike can see it, but he hesitates.

Finally, Mike asks "What?"

"You really don't remember anything," Kevin says quietly, and it's more like a statement than a question. "Nothing at all."

Mike shrugs, reaches for the glass of water on the table, is actually surprised when he can grip it. "No, I'm just messing with you guys to freak you out," he jokes, takes a drink of water. He sets the glass down, looks back at Kevin. "I wish someone would tell me what happened. I think it's pretty clear my mind is in one piece for the time being."

Kevin sits down on his chair, which Mike hopes he hasn't spent the whole week in because it looks wretched uncomfortable. "Where do you want me to start?"

"After I got attacked, I guess?" Mike says, thinking. "I mean, I pretty much know that the Nighlock got me, but I don't remember much after that."

Kevin sighs, rubs a hand over his face. "He demorphed me and Mia, too. We didn't get stung, though. Jayden managed to subdue him with the fire smasher while I carried you back here." Mike thinks to the quick flash of memory he'd gotten of Kevin telling him not to give up. "You were burning up with a fever. You stopped breathing, actually, so Mia and I did CPR-"

"Whoa, hey, no one told me I died!" Mike says, flailing his weak arms as best he can.

"Yes, we did," Kevin grits out, and oh, Mike remembers, right, memory loss. He probably shouldn't be taking it out on Kevin.

"Sorry," he says, and makes a gesture for Kevin to continue.

"Mentor used a symbol power to help you breath, and since I was injured too I stayed here with you while they destroyed the Nighlock." Kevin continues, his voice sounding somewhere between pained and angry the whole time. "When he was gone, we thought you'd go back to normal, but you didn't. So Ji pulled out all the sacred texts and found out that the Nighlock was an especially deadly one, only summoned by Master Xandred to take out his greatest enemies."

"Well, obviously, the Nighlock missed," Mike jokes. Kevin gives him a small smile, and Mike hopes he hasn't made that joke before, too. "Wait, go back, you were injured too?"

Kevin pauses, nods. "The Nighlock snapped my ankle when he demorphed me."

Mike thinks, considers what he knows. "Wait. Hold it. You carried me all the way back here from the battle _on a broken ankle_?"

Kevin looks at him, shrugs like this isn't a big deal.

"Jesus, Kev," Mike says, rubbing his face with a hand.

"The power took care of it," Kevin says dismissively. "Anyway, Ji thought that since you were a ranger that the power would help you get rid of the poison on its own. He mixed up some ancient pain killer sleeping soup for you, and then when you were out, the rest of us… learned some healing symbols and tried them on you."

"Healing symbols?" Mike asks, raising an eyebrow. "I thought only Samurai Masters could do that stuff?"

"Ji did a couple," Kevin says, and he shrugs again. "Said it wouldn't hurt for us to try."

Kevin waits, like that's the end of the story, but something on his face says there's more. Mike gives him a look. Kevin sighs.

"And since I was stuck here with my ankle, I took care of you all week long while everyone else was busy looking for ways to make you better or fighting other Nighlocks." Kevin finishes, and he shifts, uncomfortable under Mike's stare.

"Thanks for that, by the way," Mike says, gesturing around. "It seems like you're doing a pretty good job."

"You're welcome," Kevin says, and the corners of his mouth turn up a little.

They sit in silence for a while. Sometimes Mike closes his eyes, processing what he's heard, trying to see if he can call any of it to memory. It doesn't work, and each time he feels Kevin's eyes on him, but Kevin looks away as soon as Mike opens his eyes every time.

Something else happened, Mike thinks. Something that's making Kevin act… weird.

When Mike opens his eyes for the fifth time and watches Kevin look away, he sighs dramatically.

"Do you want some food?" Kevin avoids, staring at the door. "Mia brought in some ham and cheese and crackers earlier. I ate a lot of it but there's some left."

"I'm okay," Mike says, and then wonders, "Hey, so when did you and she become a thing?"

Kevin's head snaps over, his eyes wide. "What?"

Mike hopes he didn't misunderstand. "Well, I just, earlier, with the kissing and the hugging, it looked like, but hey if I'm wrong forget I mentioned it!"

Kevin stares at him, his face softens a little. He shakes his head, laughs a little. "You are an idiot," he says, and Mike objects but Kevin waves him off. "Mia and I are just friends. She just… feels bad for me, is all."

Mike stops, fixes Kevin with his most skeptical look. "Kevin," he admonishes, "come on man. Don't sell yourself short! I'm sure it's more than that-"

The look Kevin gives him makes him stop. He holds up his hands.

"Alright, okay, I'll shut up." Mike says, but Kevin starts shaking his head again, and the look on his face should look happy since it's a smile but it looks more… upset than anything else.

"She feels sorry for me," he repeats slowly, "because I like someone else. And I thought that they liked me too, but I was wrong." Kevin seems to curl in on himself, like admitting this is the most ridiculous thing he's had to do, ever.

Mike furrows his brow. "Who do you like? Emily?" He asks, sort of surprised. He'd never looked for it, but he thinks he would have noticed if Kevin was crushing on Emily.

Kevin slowly shakes his head.

"Not Emily?" Mike confirms. "Then who?"

Kevin looks over at him, gives him a long, hard look. Mike waits to see if Kevin is going to tell him, makes a face and gestures like 'dude, come on' when he doesn't. Kevin grins, shakes his head. "Never mind. It's not important. Just shut up and focus on getting better, okay?"

Mike sighs, would fold his arms if they didn't still feel like jello. "That is such a copout," he says instead, closing his eyes. "And you're being awfully bossy to an invalid."

"You are not an invalid," Kevin says immediately, annoyance clear in his voice. "You're going to be fine, so hush."

Mike pauses, considers, opens his eyes. "We don't know that though, do we?"

Kevin looks at him.

"It's possible I won't get better. I could be stuck this way, if Ji can't find a cure. Let me ask you something, that Nighlock, any of his other victims ever live?" Mike guesses, can tell from the look of guilt on Kevin's face that he's right. "So we have no idea if I'll even survive this, or if the poison is already rotting my brain-"

Kevin interrupts. "Mike, stop," he says.

Mike talks over him. "-and that's why I can't remember anything, or if it's eating away at my muscles and the power is just barely managing to keep me alive somehow-"

"Stop it," Kevin says again, louder this time.

"-and it's not like the team can go without a green ranger forever, so we're gonna have to pass the power to one of my brothers if I don't get better soon and if it's the only thing keeping me alive then what happens-"

"Mike, stop it!" Kevin lunges forward, grabs Mike by the shirt, shakes him. "Just shut up, okay?"

Mike stops, is so surprised by Kevin losing his shit that he shuts up. Kevin drops him back onto the bed, and Mike deflates as Kevin walks away from the bed, scrubs a tired hand over his face.

"You're such an ass," he says, and Mike thinks he can hear the same choked off sound as earlier, the same one that mumbled _poison induced insanity, there's no point_ to Mia in the dark. "Look, I'm gonna go get someone else to sit with you for a while," he says, heading for the door.

Mike lifts a hand, "Kevin, hey, I'm sorry." He says, and Kevin stills at the door. "I'm just… scared, is all. This is hard."

Kevin pauses, and Mike thinks he sees him shaking a little.

"Come on, man," Mike tries again, wishing he could get out of the bed and go over to him and not be stuck here where he can't do anything but use his words. "You said you wouldn't leave if I didn't want you to."

Kevin turns back to him, and in the dim light Mike can see the pain on his face. It makes Mike freeze, makes him feel cold all over, and he remembers suddenly that he hadn't told Kevin he remembered that. And, oh. Apparently that was the wrong thing to say.

Kevin opens his mouth, closes it, closes his eyes like he's bracing himself, and then he turns and leaves the room. He closes the door behind him, and Mike is left alone in the semi-darkness.

* * *

It's a while before Emily comes into the room. She's got on her fluffy yellow slippers and a large white shall around her shoulders. Even in the dim light, she's totally illuminated because of the light colors.

She sits down in Kevin's chair. "Hey, how are you doing?" she says around a yawn.

Mike gives her a sympathetic look. "I'm sorry you had to get up to come babysit me."

Emily shakes her head. "It's not a problem. Actually, I was really surprised. We've been asking Kevin to let us help take care of you all week, but he refused."

"Did he?" Mike looks away from her, wondering again.

"Is everything okay?" She asks a moment later, when he's quiet.

"Hey, who does Kevin like?" Mike asks abruptly, turning back. "It's not Mia, and apparently it's not you, so who else do we know?"

Emily looks at him with confused look, but it slowly turns into recognition. "Are you serious?"

Mike does his 'why wouldn't I be' face at her, and she balks. She laughs, raises a hand to her mouth to cover it, facepalms, looks back at Mike and reaches for his hand.

"Mike, I love you, but you can be really dense sometimes," she says, giving his hand a squeeze.

"I think it's terrible that you think this is so funny," Mike says, annoyed.

"What did you say to him?" Emily wonders. "He seemed really upset."

"I…" Mike trails off, not wanting to repeat himself. "There was discussion of my possible demise," he summarizes, shrugging. "I'm not sure why he got so mad, though."

"Really," Emily says, sarcasm evident in her voice. "You discussed the possibility that you're going to die, and you can't see why that would upset him?"

Mike sighs, looks at her with pleading eyes.

Emily smiles sadly. "Did anyone ever tell you what's gone on this week?"

Mike nods. "Yeah, Kevin told me a bit, about the attack and everything. How you guys tried to use healing symbols on me."

Emily stares at him for a minute, chewing on her lip.

"You only do that when you aren't sure if you should say something," Mike tells her, pointing. "Spill."

"Mike," she hesitates. "I'm sure he told you the basic version, but let me elaborate. When you got stung, Kevin jumped on the Nighlock. It grabbed him and threw him 20 feet in the air, demorphed him and snapped his ankle. Then, Jayden told him to get you to safety, and he carried you back to the house, over 2 miles, on a broken ankle. When we got back, and you started convulsing and not breathing, the rest of us froze. _Kevin_ started giving you CPR." Emily narrates it in a surprisingly serious tone. "And when Ji told us he wasn't sure there was anything he could do for you, _Kevin_ pulled out the old texts, did the research, made Ji try a healing symbol on you and then insisted, _against Ji's permission,_ on doing one of his own.

"His is the one that worked," she says, searching Mike's face. "And then, _Kevin_ spent the whole week at your side, taking care of you. He wouldn't leave you. He slept here."

Mike looks at her, feeling heavy. "And then I woke up and didn't remember any of it…"

"And now you're asking who he likes." Emily says, raising her eyebrows like the answer is obvious.

Mike throws his head back into the pillows. "I sort of hate this whole thing," he says dejectedly. "I'm just going to go to sleep and pretend to forget everything again in the morning and not be a total jerk to him this time."

"Mike," Emily chides gently, and he looks back over at her.

"I can't even," Mike raises his other hand, gestures to himself. "I'm stuck here, it's not like I can chase him down or anything. And what do I say?"

"You could say what you said to him the first time you woke up," Emily says, smiling.

Mike isn't sure he wants to know. "Which is?"

Emily giggles. "You looked up at him after his healing symbol worked, said 'Is it hot in here or is it just you?' and passed out again."

"Ohmygod," Mike groans, flushing.

"The next time, you totally kissed him when he went to pick you up," she laughs again, and Mike holds up his hands. "He looked terrified!"

"Stop, stop, just stop," he says, grinning at her infectious laughter. "I don't need to know anymore. Man, no wonder he thinks it was poison induced insanity."

"Well," Emily says, shrugging. "Maybe it was. Doesn't mean there wasn't some truth in it, somewhere." She gives his hand a squeeze, let's go. "I'm going back to bed. I'll send him back in, okay?"

Mike nods, watches her go, waits, trying to will any memories of these events to mind. He closes his eyes, takes some deep breathes…

* * *

He wakes up when the Nighlock alarm goes off. Kevin starts in his chair, falls out of it before scrambling to his feet.

Kevin looks at him. Mike tries not to flush. How had he fallen asleep?

"Go," Mike says, pointing to the door.

Kevin hesitates, "You shouldn't be left alone. What if something happens-"

"Kevin, I'll be fine, just go!" Mike insists. He makes shooing motions, but Kevin is heading back towards him.

He pulls Mike's Samurizer off the dresser, sets it in his hand, already open with Kevin's symbol punched in. "If anything happens, just hit this and-"

"Kevin, I know how it works," Mike says, "now go!"

Kevin gives him one last worried look before heading out the door.

Mike breathes out a long sigh, picks up a hand to rub at his chest wound. From what he can feel, it's still swollen and puffy, and it still feels warm. He doesn't feel quite as weak, but when he tests himself he still can't fully lift his legs.

He thinks back to the night before, to Emily telling him what was what, to the looks Kevin had been giving him. He scolds himself for falling asleep again, wonders what Kevin thought when Emily sent him back.

He lays there in the quiet, oddly lonely. It occurs to him that, asleep or not, Kevin has been with him for the better part of a week, keeping watch, keeping him company. It gives him a bit of a pang, not knowing what he'd done or said to deserve it. And then knowing he'd screwed it up.

So, Kevin was into him. He supposed. It sounded, from the way Emily said it, like Mike had started it. But he couldn't be sure. He'll have to ask Kevin, he guesses, that is if Kevin will tell him. He'd certainly left those details out of the story the first time.

Would Mike have believed him if he'd told him? He's not sure.

He rubs at the wound again, wondering. Kevin had saved his life, first by reviving him the old fashioned way, then by defying their Mentor to use a Master symbol… it sure seemed like Kevin had started it. So what had happened? He thinks again to Kevin's promise in the dark, the only memory he actually has of that week; _I won't leave, not if you don't want me to. _It sounded terribly romantic. Mike had probably eaten it up, egged him on. He hadn't exactly been himself, but then… there was also probably some truth in whatever had happened between them, like Emily said, because it didn't seem to be freaking Mike out, not like it should, not in the 'suddenly hot for Kevin' way or the 'Kevin's a guy' way, but in the 'I may have just lost my best friend' sort of way.

Mike groans, frustrated that he can't remember any of it. He closes his eyes, tries to think back to the brief memories he does have, the ones that came back to him when he'd had a flare up yesterday. Then he thinks how odd it is that he remembered things then, while the poison was trying to kill him again. Maybe it really is eating away at his brain, he thinks, and then regrets it as the fear hits him.

He thinks he would have preferred dying quick, in battle, than wasting away for months from poison. He really isn't sure.

He makes a noise, tries to switch his mind back on track, to thinking about Kevin and Kevin taking care of him and not about death.

He thinks about the dark room again, about Kevin lying beside him, his hand over Mike's chest, over his sting, looking at him like Mike was making him happy. He wonders if they'd fallen asleep that way, if Kevin had pressed their foreheads together and then kissed him, maybe, after promising not to leave.

He thinks he can almost feel Kevin's lips on his when his shoulder starts to get heavy, and he starts to feel warm. He shoots his eyes open, realizes he needs to hit the button on his phone, the one that will make Kevin come back and save him somehow, but his fingers won't move, and his eyes fall shut and all he can think is how angry Kevin's going to be with him if he dies while Kevin's not here…

* * *

_His vision is foggy, and he's so sweaty, but he can just barely make out Kevin above him looking relieved. _

_He isn't even sure why he says it. He just grins stupidly, looks up at Kevin's pretty face and goes, "Is it hot in here or is it just you?" _

_Kevin's eyes go wide, but he smiles, and then he's out of Mike's vision, but Mike thinks he feels Kevin's head next to his, thinks he hears Kevin mumbling "You're okay" over and over. _

* * *

"_Would you just let me help you," Kevin says, pulling Mike towards him. Mike isn't in any state to really fight it, what with his body being mostly limp. _

_Kevin stumbles a little, trying to find a way to lift him. He ends up pulling him up against him, with Mike's head resting on his shoulder, looking over at the floor and Kevin's barefoot feet. _

"_I see what you did there," Mike mumbles into Kevin's neck, feels Kevin shiver, wishes he had the use of his limbs, dammit. "You just wanna hug me." _

"_You are an obnoxious patient," Kevin says, but there's a smile in his voice. _

_Mike laughs. "This is not how I expected us to play doctor." _

* * *

"_Why are you still here?" Mike says, opening his eyes. He's too warm, under the covers and with Kevin's body pressed against him. _

_Kevin lifts his head, looks at him. "You asked me to stay." _

_Mike thinks, uses a limp hand to push the covers down a little. "Oh, yeah," he agrees, and he snuggles into Kevin's side. "Okay, good, stay, yes." _

_And Mike presses his lips up to Kevin's again, feels Kevin stiffen, then relax, then kiss him back while he rubs a hand down the side of Mike's sweaty face…_

* * *

He's up, in someone's arms, being shaken, and his cheek feels like it's been smacked. He's cool, ice cold, actually, and when he opens his eyes he shivers, too.

Kevin pulls away from him, but doesn't let him go. "You were supposed to push the button!" Kevin yells at him, and then pulls Mike back into his chest hard, practically crushes him.

Mike tries to lift a hand to hug him back, but he's so exhausted. "'m sorry," he says into Kevin's shoulder. "I tried."

Kevin's breathing hard, and it's a long minute before he pulls away, sees how exhausted Mike is and lays him back down on the bed. "Are you cold? I used a freezing symbol. That was probably a bad idea," Kevin says, and he starts wrapping blankets around Mike, who can barely keep his eyes open.

"I remember some stuff," Mike says quickly, but it sounds slurred to him, and this is not how he wants to do this.

Kevin pauses, looks at him. "Like what?"

Mike grins stupidly. "I can't use the line now, not when 'm cold." He jokes, and he tries to look at Kevin's face, hoping he'll see a smile there. Kevin just looks broken. "There wus kissing," Mike says sleepily, closing his eyes, "prett' sure there wus a lot of kissing…"

* * *

He can hear voices, somewhere close but not nearby. They all sound familiar, worried, and he thinks that they might be talking about him, but he can't think of why. He still feels heavy, and he realizes there's something on his chest.

It only takes a shift of his head, almost all the energy he has to see that it's Kevin, laying beside him, breathing gently, eyes closes, his arm draped over Mike's chest. Mike takes a second, looks at him, wonders if he's dreaming, then closes his eyes again.

* * *

He's being woken up again, but he wants to push whoever it is away and tell them how tired he is. Only they don't go away, so he cracks his eyes to see Mentor staring back at him, and he tries to open his eyes all the way.

Mentor had gone to get help, right? So either this is it, and Mike will feel better, or this is it, and Mike will go back to sleep.

"Mike, I need you to wake up now," Mentor says, and when Mike mumbles something in assent, Mentor backs off.

"Oh, sweetheart," a familiar voice coos, and he feels a hand on his forehead, and he looks to his side and whoa, there's his mom. "You must feel awful," she says, and he tries to focus on her face.

"A bit," he says, and is then shocked when he sees his dad behind her, and his sister and brothers too. He gulps, looks around the rest of the room.

The rest of the Samurai rangers are there, and Mentor, and some guy in a suit he doesn't recognize.

"You look like crap, muffin-top," his sister Ferrara says from behind his parents, and he glares at her as best he can.

"Yeah, but at least I have an excuse," he calls back weakly. "What's yours?"

She makes a sassy noise, and Paulo makes the sound of a sizzle while touching her shoulder. "Half dead and still got it," he says after, with a grin.

Mike really hopes they're not here to bid him farewell, because if this is how they're going to be, then he's going to kick them out.

He reaches for his moms hand, braces himself. "Are we… are we transferring the power?"

Maria Montoya looks stunned for a moment, then laughs. "Absolutely not! My, aren't you a cold fish these days, honey. Didn't realize you were so ready to go!"

Mike tries to look relieved, is still a bit worried they've brought his family in.

"We're going to try something, Mike," Mentor tells him from the foot of the bed. "We're all going to combine our symbol power and use it to heal you. You're going to have to use your symbol power, too."

Kevin presses Mike's Samurizer into his other hand, and Mike looks over at him. Kevin pulls his hand back quickly, and Mike almost wishes he didn't. Except that his family is here, and he'd never live it down.

"Wait, what am I doing?" Mike asks, and Emily carries a book over to him.

"It's pretty simple," she says, sitting down and showing him a symbol. "This will allow us to channel out power into you. Clans used to use it, for spiritual healing. It's only a couple of brush strokes-"

"For you," he quips, feeling a little stronger. "I'm not even sure I can lift my arm."

Emily looks at him worriedly.

"I'll help him draw the symbol," the man in the suit says, taking off his outer jacket. "If everyone else can perform their parts, I can hold him up."

The Asian man steps next to Emily, who stands, hands off the book.

"What we're doing," he explains to Mike, "is giving you a power boost. The green ranger powers are trying to cure you, but it's not enough. So we're going to super charge you. For a couple of hours, you're going to feel very high," he warns, and suddenly Mike likes this plan.

"Cool," he jokes, and is amused when Kevin smiles behind the man.

The man pulls something out of his pocket, lifts Mikes head and slips it around his neck. Mike looks down at a cracked green amulet. "For luck," he says, and then he and Mike's mom are helping him sit up, and the man takes Mike's hand with his open Samurizer in it, and everyone circles around him.

"This is a little freaky," he manages, watching his siblings pull out paint brushes along with his parents. He really hopes they don't mess this up. Especially Tony. Tony has never been good with symbols. His youngest brother is the last person he'd put his life in the hands of. He gulps.

"It'll be okay," Kevin assures, and Mike looks over at him, looks at Kevin's face, which is scared but still confident, and Mike nods, tries to believe him.

Everyone starts drawing on some kind of signal, the samurai rangers drawing their family symbols, his family drawing identical green symbols like his, and when they've all finished, the man sitting next to him helps him draw the symbol from the book, the power magnification symbol, and when that's finished, everyone around him hits their symbols, and then his turns bright white, and before he knows it, so does his vision.

* * *

"_This would be awkward, if we hadn't done this once before," Mike jokes as Kevin carries him out of the bathroom. _

"_Slightly different circumstances," Kevin grins, reaching the bed and laying him back down. _

"_And you totally want to jump my bones now, so there's that." Mike quips. Kevin gives him at look, but it's a good look, Mike thinks. _

"_Don't pretend like you don't totally want me to," Kevin says, looking away, and Mike laughs weakly. _

"_When I'm better," Mike says, reaching out and tugging on Kevin's shirt, "I won't pretend." _

_Mike pulls him close, until Kevin's right within range, but Mike knows it's up to Kevin to make the final move forward, to kiss him, because Mike doesn't have the strength. Kevin hesitates, lingering a breath away. He's close enough that if Mike tries to focus on him too hard he gets a third eye, so Mike looks down at his lips instead, tugs a little bit more on Kevin's shirt. _

"_Mike," Kevin says, bringing a hand up to his face. _

"_Kevin," Mike mimics, wishing Kevin would kiss him already. _

"_If this is the poison talking," Kevin says slowly, hesitating again. _

"_It's not," Mike promises, tugging on Kevin's shirt. "And you have no excuse," he reminds gently. "Being poisoned didn't make you carry me back here on a broken foot, didn't make you risk everything to save me." _

"_No," Kevin agrees, "my feelings are real." _

_Mike grins, pulling all the strength in his body to lift his head towards Kevin's as he says, "So are mine." _

_He presses their lips together, listens to Kevin make a small noise as he presses Mike back into the pillows, falls on top of him, twists himself around Mike while they kiss. _

* * *

Poison does strange things to your inhibitions, he thinks, his eyes fluttering open.

He feels… like himself. He's able to sit right up, is surprised when he can not only flex his fingers but can move and flex his legs. He feels weak, but not like before. He feels like he's been in bed all week long with the flu, and it's finally out of his system. With hesitation he reaches down and pulls his shirt back, takes off his bandage.

The gaping wound that had been before is now down to a small white scar. Mike breathes a sigh of relief and looks up, expecting to see someone… but not his sister.

"Sup, muffin-top," she says, smacking her gum and grinning. Her feet are propped up on the bed, and she's got a magazine in her hands.

"Would you stop calling me that, horse-hair?" He responds, reaching down to give her leg a hard pinch. "Especially in front of my friends," he tells her, and she smiles. "I hardly have a muffin-top anymore!"

"It's true, you have bulked up a bit since you left," she squeaks, pulls her foot away from his pinching. "Glad to see you're okay, bro."

He nods, feeling okay, which is such a huge relief. "Where's Kevin?" He asks before he thinks about it, and immediately regrets it when he sees a large smirk on Ferrara's face.

"Oh, you mean your boyfriend?" She teases, and he glares.

"He's not my boyfriend," he objects immediately, then regrets that, too.

"He went to take a shower and catch some Z's. Apparently, he's been at your side all week," she wiggles her eyebrows, and he swipes for her.

She rolls out of the chair and away, and Mike swings his feet off the bed and onto the floor to chase her, and is actually surprised that they support him.

The door opens, and Mentor and his mother come in, chatting happily. He waves.

"Oh, baby!" His mom says, coming forward and kissing his cheek, giving him a hug.

"Ah, mom," he groans, "I've just survived deadly Nighlock poison. Don't kill me from embarrassment."

She laughs, pulls back. "Embarrass you? In front of Mentor? Please, this man helped me change your diapers," she chides, and Mike squeezes his eyes shut.

"That's something I could have gone my whole life without knowing," Mike says, and Mentor laughs.

"She was threatening to pull out the baby photo's to show the rangers," he says, and Mike's eyes snap open in horror, "but I talked her out of that one."

"There's still time," Maria winks at him.

"Okay, seriously," Mike jokes, stepping away from his mom. "When are you leaving?"

* * *

His family stays just long enough to embarrass the hell out of him-two days after he comes back around-and then leaves with promises to send Emily plenty of photos of him as an infant.

The man in the suit-who he finds out was a cousin of Mia's-leaves pretty much as soon as Mike wakes up, making some quip about green rangers needing to stick together. He takes the amulet back from Mike, too.

Mike finds that he's pretty much back to normal. He has the appetite of a starved gorilla, and Mentor makes extra at each meal to help Mike get his strength back. He's also told to take it easy during training, and while he'd thought that would be cool, he really wants to get back out there and re-hone his body. It still feels a little clumsy sometimes.

And Kevin… Kevin pretty much avoids him at all costs during all of this. He sits far away from him when they eat, doesn't train with him, doesn't even make jokes with him. He even avoids his eyes, and Mike doesn't know how to make him see…

It's a few days after his family leaves before he manages to corner him in the courtyard after dinner.

"Kevin," he calls, watches Kevin jump, grins. "You are avoiding me."

Kevin looks up him, makes a hard face like he doesn't know what Mike's talking about. Mike goes over, sits down next to him, stares out at the courtyard. "I just thought," Kevin tries after a few minutes of silence, "you might want some space."

Mike grins, scoots a little closer, bumps his shoulder against Kevin's. "And here I distinctly remember you saying you wouldn't go anywhere if I didn't want you to."

Kevin looks over at him, and Mike keeps looking forward. "You told me you didn't remember."

"I didn't," Mike admits, chancing a quick glance over at Kevin. He looks… hopeful, which cool. Hopeful is good. "At least, not at first. I still don't remember everything." He pauses, takes his hands out of his pockets. He reaches over, puts his hand on top of one of Kevin's. "But I think I remember enough."

Kevin sighs, pull his hand away and scrubs it over his face roughly. "Look, I didn't try to take advantage of you or anything," he says, standing up and moving away from Mike. "But you kissed me, twice, and I though, I mean, I was pretty sure it was just the poison, but you were so sure it wasn't and… We should just," he hesitates, leans against one of the pillars, crossing his arms. "Let's just…"

Kevin trails off, looks over at Mike for help. "If you're going to say forget it, I'm going to have to make a bad memory loss joke."

Kevin grins, which isn't entirely a bad sign. Mike stands up, walks over to him.

"Maybe you should… remind me, about the rest of it first," Mike prods, standing in Kevin's space.

Kevin looks at him, sighs, leans forward and presses a quick kiss to Mike's lips. He pulls back, looks utterly defeated, waits for Mike to say something.

Mike swallows. "Remind me some more," he says happily, and Kevin makes a face at him. "Okay, sorry, jees. I just… It seems like something pretty life altering occurred last week, and I wish I knew about more of it."

Kevin looks away from him. "I told you before, that my feelings were real," he says quietly, and Mike remembers that part. Remembers what he said back. "It wasn't just last week."

Not surprisingly, the only thing Mike can think of to say is a childish taunt, so he presses his lips together, keeps it in. Kevin catches it, eyes him suspiciously.

"What?" He asks, the corners of his own mouth turning up.

Mike lets himself smile, reaches out to poke Kevin's chest. "You like me," he sing-songs, "you really, really like me."

"Mike," Kevin says warningly, and Mike looks at him.

"Kevin," he echoes, amused.

Kevin sighs again, looks away from him. Mike steps forward, reaches out to tug on Kevin's sweater. Kevin watches Mike's hand.

"I think," Mike says quietly, trying to be serious, "that I meant what I said, too. Poison or not, I meant it," he whispers, leaning in, "when I said my feelings were real, too." And he leans forward, locks his mouth with Kevin's and it feels familiar, even though all he has are vague memories of it, and he can't help but wonder with a fond grin how much kissing they did that week.

Kevin kisses him back, raises a hand to the back of Mike's neck, steps closer. Yeah, Mike thinks, this is a pretty good reward for being poisoned and nearly dying. It's not what he thought would happen, certainly, but he's already decided he's okay with it. Hell, his sick self decided that for him.

They kiss until there's no space between them, until Kevin pulls away and leans his head into Mike's shoulder, and Mike smiles as he tilts their heads together. But then Kevin reaches up with his hand, tugs on the collar of Mike's shirt and pulls it back until his circular white scar is exposed.

He kisses it gently, which Mike should find sweet, but it just makes him laugh. Kevin turns his head, looks at him like he's being annoying.

"Man," Mike says, still chuckling. "No wonder I fell for you. Your sap must have been very appealing to my near-death self."

Kevin narrows his eyes, starts to pull back, but Mike holds onto him now that he finally has the strength to.

"Hey," he objects, nudging his lips next to Kevin's again. "I didn't say stop."

And he kisses Kevin again, let's Kevin kiss him back in the dim porch light, thinks again of Kevin's idle promise to a sick, exhausted Mike.

"I won't leave, either," Mike tells him when they pull apart. "Not if you don't want me to."

* * *

Mentor was right, as it turned out. He couldn't predict the long-term effects of the poison. Mike get's hot more often than he used to, and his sleeping habits don't go back to normal for a long time. He needs to sleep an extra few hours every night just to feel normal, and on days where they have particularly difficult battles he feels like a zombie.

And he ends up dating Kevin, which is also unexpected but not unwelcomed. And Kevin keeps taking care of him, even if it's in a more reduced fashion.

Overall he feels pretty lucky. Not only did he survive a legendary Nighlock intent on destroying him, he ended up with a boyfriend. Wins all around.

"I say," Jayden tells them one night at dinner, "that we take tomorrow off and go out and celebrate."

Mike looks up from slurping his noodles. "What are we celebrating?"

"You're recovery!" Mia exclaims at him from across the table, smiling. "It's been a month since you got better."

"Oh," Mike thinks, tilting his head. He looks around at his friends, all staring at him. He manages to keep a straight face when he says, "What did I get better from, exactly?"

As predicted, there's a quick, tense silence as everyone exchanges worried looks. Beside him, Kevin has stiffened, put his fork and bowl down. It's mean, Mike thinks, but he wouldn't be him if he didn't do it.

He looks around at them all, starts to smile, and Emily sees it first and tosses her napkin at him. "Mike!"

"I'm gonna kill you," Kevin says from beside him when he sees his smile, deflating.

Mike laughs, has to avoid everything that's thrown at him as everyone breathes sighs of relief.

"It was a joke, ow!" He exclaims while Antonio jabs his with a spoon. "I think a day off sounds like a good plan."

"Oh, I've just changed my mind," Jayden says as he resumes eating. "You're going to spend the day running suicides in the courtyard."

Everyone laughs, and Mike hopes he's not serious. He finishes his noodles, laughs when Mia brings out a small dessert with an apprehensive face. They all try it, and it's actually not bad, but she looks suspiciously at Mike, like he's the only one she can trust to be honest.

"I could have made it terrible on purpose," she warns, sticking a finger out and waggling it at all of them. "You guys are too trusting."

When everyone disperses, Mike spends a few minutes rubbing at his scar. Sometimes, it still burns a little, and every time he wonders if he'll ever remember more of that week, remember more of what Kevin did for him. He doesn't, and the wound just burns idly, like a dying flame.

Kevin tells him everything, eventually, everything they said and did, and Mike really starts to regret not remembering it. He wonders, sometimes, if it was the poison running through him that had kept him from remembering, or if it had been him, trying to protect himself somehow. Either way, the memories don't come back.

It's okay though, Mike decides, sitting with Kevin in bed one night, Kevin's arm draped lazily around him and Mike playing with a rubber band. He reaches over, pulls it tight, slaps it against Kevin's tight thigh, laughs when Kevin starts, surprised.

Kevin reaches for the rubber band, and they play a quick game of keep away before Mike cheats and starts kissing him, and that usually stops Mike from getting in trouble these day.

They have plenty of time to make more memories, Mike thinks with a grin. The first ones aren't nearly as important as all the ones that come after.


End file.
